Las Vegas Weekly

Foo Fighters play surprise show in Vegas

Photo: Allison Duck

Dave Grohl likes a good pair of pants.

The Foo Fighters frontman said as much Tuesday night at Rain where fans were out in full force for the AG Jeans party. Though the show initially was private and unpublicized, news that the band would be playing spread throughout Las Vegas at the last minute. In a surprise move, the party was opened to the public in the late evening, and the club was packed when the Foo Fighters took the stage just after 10:30 p.m.

The crowd expectedly went wild as the band kicked off the set with “All My Life.” The band has publicly said they were taking a “long break,” and Grohl lately has been playing with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) in Them Crooked Vultures (who will play April 17 at The Joint).

Last night, however, was purely Foo Fighters. And jeans, of course.

“We’re playing for pants tonight, kids,” joked Grohl from the stage, reminding the audience they were at an AG Jeans event. “I’ll do anything for a nice pair of slacks.”

The Foo Fighters’ set consisted mainly of their most popular singles, and a club-wide sing-a-long was inevitable. Highlights included a cellist/violinst joining the band for a few songs, drummer Taylor Hawkins singing on “Cold Day in the Sun” while the rest of the band went acoustic, an epic performance of “Everlong,” and the venue making use of Rain’s overhead pyro effects during the set.

Grohl addressed the Foo Fighters hiatus during the performance, as well. “So here’s the deal,” Grohl said a few songs in to the set. “We haven’t played a gig in six months, so we’re going to play as long as we want.” The audience cheered, but Grohl might have meant as short as they wanted, as the Foo Fighters played about an hour only. After they closed the night with “Monkey Wrench” (sadly, no encore at this gig), Grohl let’s his Vegas show with a party-hardy sendoff: “Let’s do some body shots!”